The Final Mission
by AmazinglyEarthBound
Summary: Yet another story that goes through Hell, but this one is the end of my arc. Major QuotexCurly, so if you're a crusty ol' hater, do not read chapter 3.
1. Chapter 1

**[A/N] The last story in this arc. Are you excited? I'm excited. Huh? Huh? Are you? [End of A/N]**

_So, without further ado…_

The Final Mission

After defeating the Doctor, I run back into the house I found beforehand. There's a hole in the floor that wasn't there before.

What else should I do? I jump down into the hole.

I hear a ticking noise, and the counter that I found on the outer wall of the island is starting.

The first thing I notice in this place is a cold wind run through me. I try throwing my Blade.

The ghost of King is gone. I must energize it. I notice a little hole to my left, and jump down it.

Finding a sign, I read its chilling message;

"Welcome to Hell!"

I shudder at the thought. I jump back up, and almost fall into some lethal spikes. I carefully boost my way through the spikes and land on a platform.

A weird voice speaks to me.

"Did you know that the witch-woman Jenka once had a brother? His name was Ballos. Like his sister, he wielded powers far beyond those of mortals…"

I continue to boost past the spikes, and land on a small platform. I jump off and boost past these new spikes and notice a small form on the ground. She's so incapacitated I almost didn't recognize her, but it's…

"Curly!"

"Hey, Quote," she says weakly. "I can't move very well, do you think you could tie me to you with that rope again?"

"OK," I say. "But watch my back this time. Do you have a weapon?"

"Well, I lost my machine gun, but when I woke up, I found this. It had a note on it that said 'This is the Nemesis. Use it well. Mr. Little.'"

"OK, I guess that'll work. Just fire at whatever might hurt us."

"I know the drill, Quote," she says, as we ready our guns and go through the door.

**[A/N] Huh? So? What'd you think? It's going, and soon the arc will be done, which is a shame. [End of A/N]**


	2. Chapter 2

**[A/N] Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaapteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer 2! [End of A/N]**

The next room is full of falling blocks, and these odd angel-like things that fly around and try to hurt me.

"Man, this place is weird, isn't it?" says Curly."

"I just think it's weird that there are angels, because I saw a sign at the entrance that said 'Welcome to Hell!'"

"Huh," she says, shooting at an angel. "A bit macabre, don't you think?"

"I think we should worry less about that, and more about these falling… BLOCKS!"

I just barely boost us out of the way in time, but Curly gets a hit on her leg.

I try to ask if she's OK, but she just says "It's alright. I already can't move very well. Don't worry about me."

We boost through the passage, and the voice rings out again, telling us more about this Ballos and the king of the kingdom he lived in, and then stating that "humans truly are terrible creatures…"

"I'm glad we're robots, huh?" says Curly.

"Yeah…"

I jump down into a crevice at the end of the passageway, and start to continue, before a huge wave of those small angels burst out of the passageway.

Curly and I aim upwards and dispatch them as they appear.

"I didn't know there were enough of them to do that," says Curly.

"Well, we've got bigger problems. The ones down there have little swords," I say.

I boost by, and land on a platform to have a good way to blast at them, but something comes down from above, and would have squished us if Curly hadn't noticed it and shot the thing before it could get us.

"Thanks," I say. "You saved both of us that time."

"I know that," she says. "We need to focus on the task at hand."

We shoot through some more of those angels, and come across a few with small bows and arrows.

Coming up, we find some giant ones that throw blocks. It takes a bit longer to dispatch, but it still isn't too hard.

We find a weird gray thing in the wall, and after we shoot it a bit, it starts to count down from five.

I try to remember where I heard it before, and suddenly remember a small gaseous cloud in the ruined Egg Corridor.

I quickly run away, before it lets out an explosion that would have hurt me really badly if I hadn't boosted out of the way.

"How did you know it would do that?" says Curly.

"This thing in the Egg Corridor did the same thing."

"Fair enough."

"Quote, cling to the wall. Now," she says.

"What for?" I say.

"The ones down there have bows and arrows, and they're getting fired very fast."

I do as she says, and we jump down to shoot them. As we do, though, another huge swarm of them comes out of a grate up above.

They still don't cause much of a threat, though.

"OK, this is getting ridiculous!" Curly says.

"I know, but we need to keep going!"

We shoot our way through more breakable blocks, and find another one of those things that explodes. After it does, we jump down, through a small gauntlet of two wheels that won't succumb to our shots, and find yet another. After it explodes, we find a room filled to the brim with the angels that have bows.

"Boost yourself up there, and we can each take the things on either side, OK?" Curly says.

"Got it," I say. "Hold on to your hat!"

"I'm not wearing a hat."

"I know. It's an expression."

"Can I hold on to your hat?"

"Are we doing this or what?!"

We shoot the things, and power through more and more of the creatures, before we find yet another gauntlet of flying angels coming out of a grate.

We keep powering through more and more rooms, until we find ourselves in one big room with a huge gun protruding from the ceiling.

After a few shots, the thing goes down without a hitch, just like the rest of this place.

Curly realizes what is going on a second before I do. She tells me to boost out of the way, and just in time, before the thing can land on us.

"How many times have you saved my life now?" I ask.

"Too many to count," she says. "Let's go!"

We jump down the hole it left, and continue into another room.

This room contains some statues. We walk to them and read the names on them.

"Halda."

"Annachponae."

"Miakid… Miakid! Quote, Miakid is the person who took the demon crown that we fought before we were separated!" Curly says.

"Huh," I say.

The last statue is one of…

"The Doctor."

It's then that we notice the plaque on the ground, reading "The Four Crown Bearers, Wielders of Evil."

"Well," says Curly. "The statue actually says his name is Date Fuyuhima."

I shoot the statue with a full Spur shot, not wanting to look at his face ever again, and am surprised to see that it cracks open to form a statue of Curly.

"Curly, this is you!" I exclaim. The name now reads Curly Brace.

Astonished, I shoot the other statues, and watch them crack open to reveal statues of King, Toroko, and…

"Me."

Curly notices the plaque changing, too.

"Quote, look at the plaque!"

The plaque now reads "The Four Heroes, Defenders of Good."

"What are we doing on statues here?" I ask in bewilderment.

"Isn't it obvious, Quote?" says Curly. "We're two of the four heroes."

That stiffens my resolve.

"Then I guess we need to see what lies ahead, and be prepared for it when it comes," I say.

"Spoken like a true hero, Quote," she says. "Now let's get going."

**[A/N] Geez! Dry spell much! I have finally made Chapter 2, and the next chapter will be the finale. I have absolutely no ideas for what happens after the game, so that part will be left up to interpretation. Of course, I did already post a story for it. [End of A/N]**


	3. Chapter 3

**[A/N] Oh, man! Chapter 3! This is the last chapter of the last story in my arc. *Squee!* Also, props to AscendingAnthem yet again, for some great ideas for the story. If you get any more, you can make a movie set with them. Go read his stories, folks! And don't worry, krikanalo, I like you, too. [A/N]**

We go into the door, and find ourselves in a very large room.

"Hey," says Curly. "There's someone over there."

I walk up to the mystery man, and he speaks to us.

"Welcome."

"I am Ballos. Years and years ago, in fear of enduring further punishment, I allowed my magic to run wild."

"Is this the same guy that that voice was talking about during our trek through here?" Curly asks.

"I guess so," I say. "It isn't a very common name."

"Now, kill me!" he says, apparently at the end of his speech. "Or I will kill you!"

And with a swipe of his hand, he knocks me off my feet, and sends Curly flying to the other side of the room.

"You are gonna pay for that," I seethe. "Nobody… and I mean _nobody…_ messes with my girl and gets away with it!"

He opens his eyes, finally, and I notice that one of his eye sockets is empty.

I run up to him, and deliver a fully charged Spur shot to the empty socket.

He roars in pain, and flies up in the air. I hang on to his foot to stop him from getting away.

He glows red and releases a bunch of lightning bolts at me from every direction. I jump out of the way just in time, and his body is fried, except for his one remaining eye.

I run over to Curly and pick her up. I'm so preoccupied with her that I don't notice the small pile of ashes that used to be Ballos rise up into the ceiling.

I'm about to withdraw my rope from my pack, when Ballos, in giant rock-head form, comes swooping out of the sky and almost lands on me.

I run to the other side of the room as he opens his one remaining eye.

It's really hard to run while holding Curly, and I want to tie her to me again, but the rock is too fast to give me an opening.

I clumsily boost myself up, and deliver another fully charged Spur shot into his remaining eye. He floats into the middle of the room, and slowly starts to grow rocks covered with spikes with an eye in the middle.

"This guy must really like eyes…" I say to myself.

I take this time to tie Curly to me again, and notice her start to come around.

"Q… Quote…"

"No, Curly. Don't do anything, and let me handle this thing."

Ballos finishes growing the spikes, and starts to roll around the room. I shoot the eyes as much as I possibly can, and after a lengthy battle, this form is defeated. He starts to go into the middle of the room again, and platforms start to appear around him. I boost up to one of them, and not a moment too soon, because more spikes begin to come out of the ground.

I look at Ballos' new form, and it was probably a horrible mistake.

Out of every orifice, every crack in his body, the faces of the damned are leaking out of him.

"Oh my God…" I breathe. "This must be what it feels like to witness absolute terror…"

One of the floating green things that suddenly materialized hits me, and I get jarred back into reality.

"Quote?" Curly's awake now, and she looks at the horrible thing that Ballos has become in his desperation.

She lets out a scream and looks away.

"Don't look at it, Curly," I say. "It'll be easier to fight if you don't focus on it."

I'm letting lose with more streams of bullets than I ever have before, closing every opening in Ballos' head to hurt him.

After a while, though, he lets out an unhuman cry and starts to bounce around the room, making it really hard to hit him.

I fall off, and land in between the spikes, unhurt. Curly looks at me, and I see something in her eyes.

Without a word, she unties herself, takes my Booster 2.0, and flies up to Ballos.

"No! Curly!" I get a flashback, and suddenly remember a time after we were fighting the Core. I don't think she'll be able to survive this one.

She boosts up to Ballos, and delivers a giant shot from her Nemesis into one of his eyes, or at least what I can call one.

He lets out a giant roar, and cracks into pieces, dead.

Curly lets out a victory cry that quickly turns into a scream as the Booster runs out of energy, and she plummets to the ground.

I run as fast as I can to the spot where she'll land, and stretch out my arms to catch her just as she would hit the ground.

"Oh, Quote!" she says. She hugs me, and says "Thank you…"

"Wait a minute…" she says. "Put me down for a second."

I put her on the ground, and to my surprise, she can walk.

"The island… It stopped! The island stopped falling!" she exclaims.

I also notice it. The room isn't shaking anymore.

"Hey, I just remembered," she says. "What were you going to tell me?"

"What do you mean?" I say, confused.

"Right after we defeated the Core, and the room started filling up with water, you were about to say something, but I stopped you, saying that you could tell me after we were out of trouble."

"Yeah…" I say.

"Well, we're out of trouble," she says. "What was it that you were going to say?"

"Oh!" I say. "That…"

I walk over to her.

"I was going to say that I-"

"IT HURTS…"

A voice sounds out of nowhere.

"The walls!" Curly says. I look behind me, and the walls are starting to close in on us.

"SO HOT… THE PAIN…"

"I think that's Ballos!" I say. "He's still trying to kill us!"

The voice suddenly stops, and all that's left is the walls closing in.

"No… No!" Curly shouts. "We can't die, not after all that. There has to be a way out of this!"

She starts to shoot the wall, to try and crumble it, but to no avail, all the while saying "There's got to be a way… There's got to be a way…"

Finally, she gives up. She slumps down on the ground and starts to cry.

I can't believe my eyes. Curly Brace, the ultimate survivor, the strongest person I know, is _crying_.

"Curly…" I say. I walk over to her, and stand her up. I take both her hands in mine, and wrap her in an embrace.

In a voice that even I can barely her, I whisper into her ear,

"I love you."

I can feel her expression change to surprise, and I hear her say, to my complete shock and amazement…

"I love you, too."

We pull away.

"How long?" I say.

"Ever since we met, back in the Sand Zone, I had a huge crush on you, but I think that it actually started… when you saved me back in the Labyrinth. You saved my life, and I did the same. I thought we were even, but…"

"Sshh…" I say. "Stop talking."

I lean in and close the space between us, and kiss her.

She kisses me back, and I just melt into it, as if I wasn't just about to die. The walls are still closing in.

"But…"

"There is nothing to say right now, Curly."

"But we're going to die…"

"Then we'll die. But at least we'll die together, knowing that we finally know how the other feels."

She starts to cry again, and I wrap my arms around her, bracing myself for the end when…

"Huzzah!"

Balrog comes swooping in from the ceiling.

"Just like Misery said!" he says. "Grab on, unless you want to stay here."

Without a word, Curly and I each grab one of his hands, holding hands ourselves, still, and he breaks through the ceiling.

"DUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!"

We pop through the top of the island like a rocket, and climb on to his head right before his arms change into wings and he starts to fly away.

"You know," Curly says. "I'm not even going to question this, but I would like to know how you knew we were here, Balrog."

"Misery sent me," Balrog says simply.

"But I thought you guys hated us!"

"Well, when you defeated Ballos, it lifted our curse. Now all the slavery stuff is over, and we can lead actual lives now, so Misery sent me to help you guys out as a gesture of thanks," Balrog explains.

"Hm."

We fly away from the island for a while, until Balrog breaks the silence.

"So, what are you two lovebirds going to do now?" Balrog asks.

"I'm not really sure," I say. "We don't really know…"

"Well, if you guys are gonna live someplace, do you mind if I join you?"

"Well, we were planning on living alone, but then again," says Curly. "We were also planning on dying just a minute ago, so sure! You can join us if you want! I'll even let you pick the place!"

"Really?!" Balrog yells.

"Just choose us some place with a view, where I can live out the rest of my life in happiness," Curly says.

"Thanks!" he says. "But I think you already have the happiness part down, if you know what I mean…"

Curly and I smile at each other, and share one last deep kiss before Balrog flies us away.

**[A/N] Hooooooollllllllly COW! That was long enough to be its own oneshot, and actually make sense! But anyway, the big fat story arc is finished! It's been fun, but I need to write some different stories up. I hope you guys liked it as much as I did. [End of A/N]**


End file.
